Pride Month Faves

Hey friends!

To celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, I want to highlight some of my favorite books that center LGBTQIA+ characters and themes as recommendations for you. I tried to make sure to cover a wide variety of identities in these picks since Pride Month celebrates the entire community and all identities that covers. However, I know that some identities are not covered in these picks and in my reading as a whole, and I already have some books in my physical TBR pile and even more I want to read to learn more about the community. Representation in books is something that is very important to me, so I am always looking to add books that cover a wide variety of experiences to my bookshelf.

Here are some of my favorite LGBTQIA+ books across genres:

Goodreads

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I'm a big Rainbow Rowell fan. I've read most of her Young Adult novels and want to read more and her adult novels. I absolutely love her book Fangirl, which is about a shy and anxious girl finding her place at college through writing fanfiction. Specifically, she writes fanfiction about Simon Snow and his vampiric enemy Baz (basically her world's version of a Drarry ship). When I found out that Rowell would be writing a novel version of Simon and Baz's story, I was super excited. It took me way too long to read it, but I finally did last summer and I loved it. The book covers such a fun adventure (I like it better than Harry Potter, sorrynotsorry) and all the characters are so well fleshed-out. The relationship between Simon and Baz is the perfect slow-burn enemies-to-lovers. Highly recommended if you love YA fantasy adventures!

Goodreads

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The point of this book is that this legendary film actress is revealing her life story throughout the book to a reporter. Reading this book for the first time and learning the details of her life along with the reporter is part of the fun, so I'm not going to comment a lot on this book. Let me just say that Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favorite authors (I LOVE DAISY JONES AND THE SIX). I haven't been super into historical fiction recently, but Jenkins Reid has made me more interested in it. I recommend this book if you want to read a sweeping love story all about what is behind the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

Goodreads

The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso

This was a recent read for me. It only came out a few weeks ago and I read an ARC of it right before it came out. If you're interested in seeing me absolutely gush about it, my Goodreads review is pretty comprehensive without getting into spoilers. As you can probably tell from the books I've mentioned, I am very big on fantasy and science fiction. I also really love dark books, whether they be horror or other genres tinged with horror. This book brought all that darkness out. It also has plenty of people who are attracted to plenty of other people and it is all normalized! I recommend this one if you like fantasies that read like exciting dark mysteries.

Goodreads

The Sword of Summer and other books by Rick Riordan

These books are definitely for a younger crowd since they're often shelved as middle grade, but I think they have a crossover appeal for Young Adult readers, especially if you have grown up reading Riordan's books. Many of Riordan's series are great at introducing LGBTQIA+ characters to a younger audience. They are great representation for younger readers! From what I remember, the Magnus Chase series, Heroes of Olympus series, and Trials of Apollo series include LGBTQIA+ representation. In addition, Riordan has an imprint of books called Rick Riordan Presents that focuses on mythological adventure stories that includes additional representation. I highly recommend these books for younger readers and also if you're interested in adventure and mythology.

Goodreads

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

As mentioned above, I love dark fantasy. I also love tales that include the occult. And spaceships. And locked-door mysteries. And swords. Gideon the Ninth hits all of these checkboxes. There's a reason it might be my current favorite book (Don't make me choose, but it's definitely up there). It's really hard to describe other than by using the quote on the cover from Charles Stross which includes "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" Yes, it is in fact as good as it sounds. I recommend this one if you love spooky things and swords. I just want the sequel now, but it got pushed to August :(.

Goodreads

Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

Only the fourth post on my blog and I'm already talking about Leigh Bardugo again. Can you tell she's one of my favorite authors? Bardugo is another author I recommend looking at multiple series because she really makes sure her Grishaverse includes great representation. I'm specifically highlighting the Six of Crows duology here because one of the main couples of the book is my absolute favorite couple in a book series, ever. Recommended if you like fantasy, ensemble casts, heists, spies, and the list goes on. Just read these books.

I'm always looking forward to increasing the diversity of my bookshelf, as I said, so if you have any recommendations, let me know in the comments! I noticed that this list lacks contemporary novels. While I do read contemporary novels, I tend to favor fantasy and science fiction, so SFF ends up on my favorites list more often. If you have any contemporary LGBTQIA+ novels that you've loved, I'd especially love to hear from you about them in the comments! I have a few book reviews I'd like to post soon, but I think the next 'list' post I'll do is a post about the LGBTQIA+ books I most want to read, so if you recommend something cool, I might include it in that post!

Kyra